Rath Has Career Night in Cruiser Win

For your average high school basketball player scoring 20 points in a game is outstanding. Scoring 30 points in a game is incredible but scoring 40 points......HISTORIC!

Friday night there was a little history made in Rainier Connect Arena at Eatonville High School as the Eatonville Cruisers played host to the Clover Park Warriors. Little did the fans in attendance realize when they arrived at the game that they would be experiencing a little bit of that history. Hailey Rath didn’t even know.

Rath put the Lady Cruiser team on her back so to speak and carried them to a 65-44 victory on the night that saw her score a career high school record 43 points.

Hailey Rath standing in front of the scoreboard showing her school record 43 points in the Cruisers 65-44 win over Clover Park. Photo Credit: Jennifer Herbrand

“I think 23 points in a game last year against Fife was the most points I have scored. I also scored 23 points when I played for my select team, the Puyallup Viking Elite in 6th-8th grade. It feels awesome (to now hold the school record). Big thanks to my high school coaches and my Puyallup coach Gavin Stanley for always pushing me and making me who I am today. They are a huge part in my success of breaking the school record”.."

Eight seconds into the game, Rath picked off a Warrior pass and sprinted up court to lay in her first two points of many on the night. That gave the Cruisers a 2-0 lead. A lead they would not relinquish all game.

“In pregame, I was just in the zone focused and ready to play. I shot a lot during warm ups and most of my shots were falling. I felt pretty good.”

Coming into the game, Rath was not feeling well. “I am actually sick. I ate my Nana Herbrand’s chicken noodle soup before the game and it gave me lots of protein” she said. I think that chicken noodle soup had more than just protein in it.

“I knew my point total was up there, but I didn’t look at the scoreboard to see I had 43 points until Coach Swartout subbed me out”. After she saw the point total, I asked her if she wanted to get back in the game to go for 50. “I wanted to yes, but it was good seeing some of the girls out there playing that normally don’t normally get many minutes”.

The Warriors played a 1-3-1 zone defense the whole night. I asked Swartout is that helped Rath’s point total. “It is the first time we've seen it all year. The main thing I stressed to the team before the game was to be really aggressive and get the ball up the floor quickly. Hailey did that very well for us”.

On Rath’s career night, Swartout said, “I believe it is a school record. It was one of the best all-around performances I've seen on a basketball court. She was lights out on both ends of the floor Assistant Coach Boyden and I honestly didn't realize how lights out she was until the end of the third quarter when we saw she had 38. Near the end we left her in there more to keep control of the rest of the ball game as we had a few key players banged up and not available. She was an absolute floor general that night. That was a very important game for RPI purposes, so we kept her in as long as we needed to secure the victory, but it was good to get some of those younger girls in there to experience that level of play”.

Rath would play 29 of the 32 minutes of the game. When she left the game with 3 minutes left, Swartout said, “I went up to her after she came out of the game just to say I was very proud of her. The first half we came out very flat and so for her to come out in the third quarter and take ownership as our point guard was fun to watch. It has been very cool to see her showcase great leadership qualities at such a young age”.

Scoring Stats: H. Rath 43 points, B. Lucht 8 points, B. Porter 6 points, S. Henley 4 points, K. Stewart 4 points.